Everyone's Vocation

All Christians by their baptism
have a vocation. The vocation could be to priesthood, to religious life, or lay
life, but it is a call to doing something for God. For me, both Isaiah and Peter
illustrate how we respond to that call.

Isaiah was in the court of the
most high God with angels singing the same “Holy, Holy, Holy” we sing at Mass.
He was in the presence of God and he was very, very afraid. He thought he was
doomed. Then an angel touched his lips with an ember and he was told his
wickedness was taken away. Then he heard the Lord say “Whom shall I send?”
Isaiah said, “Here I am! Send me!”

That is the same statement we make
as Christians. Now let us look at the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Luke,
verses 1 through 11. Here we are not before the throne of heaven, but, rather,
with Peter, an average working man in Israel.
Peter was a fisherman. He was doing his usual work. He had fished all night
with his crew and caught nothing. All of a sudden this Rabbi Jesus guy asks to
use the boat as a preaching platform. Peter thinks “why not?” and allows it.

After the sermon Jesus tells Peter
to go into deeper water and cast his net. Peter must have thought, “Hey,
carpenter, I don’t tell you how to make furniture, don’t tell me how to fish.” Nonetheless
he cast his net into the deepest part of the Sea of Galilee,
and caught so many fish his nets almost burst. Peter remembered all the bad
things he did, and saw Jesus as being a good person, so he fell on his knees
and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.”

But Jesus didn’t depart. Instead
he invited him to become a fisher of men. Then Peter did something amazing. He
abandoned his boat, his means of income, and the life lived by his family for,
perhaps, generations, and followed him with no concern as to how he would make
a living or what would happen to him. Absolutely amazing! An important thing to
remember is that Peter and all the apostles still made mistakes after making
their decision to follow Jesus. So did Isaiah, who is a good model for Christians.

There are three things that we
can see in the circumstances that confronted both Isaiah and Peter: the
presence of God, fear and trembling at the presence of God, and the acceptance
of a mission.

For Isaiah the presence of God took
the form of God’s throne, surrounded by angels. That this was the presence of
God was hard to miss. For Peter it took place in a more commonplace setting. Our
experience is usually more like Peter’s, where God enters into our daily lives.
Maybe He will enter in at our place of work, or our school, or our home. The
one thing I can guarantee is that you will be aware of the Presence of God. The
only thing that you have to do is be open to that Presence.

The other thing I can guarantee
is that the Presence will scare you. Let me tell you that as someone who took
30 years to become a priest. You realize the enormous power of God. You also
realize that you have a role in that power. When you realize your role, all of
your fears of incompetence or failure come to the surface. You feel like saying,
“Now God, you know I am weak and can be an idiot. Are you sure you want me?”

The answer is “Yes.” God has a
plan for you, a plan that only you can accomplish. When you realize this, that it
is your life mission, the reason you are on the earth, you say, “Lord send me.”